Health Care Delivery Jeopardized By UCP Nursing Cuts

EDMONTON – The cutting of at least 750 front-line nurses will put the health care system in Alberta on life support according to the Green Party of Alberta.

Will Carnegie, the GPA’s Interim Leader, calls the action ill-advised and reckless. “Our facilities were already understaffed and this move will mean the health of Albertans will suffer disproportionately. Just at a time when our population is getting older and more vulnerable, the UCP are taking a hatchet to the very workers that are needed most.”

In addition to the deleterious impacts the cuts will have to the health care system, the Green Party of Alberta also challenge the premise and the manner they are being carried out.

Carnegie says “This mismanagement is occurring because the UCP are intent on handing a massive tax cut to their corporate friends. Reducing an already too low corporate rate from 12% to 8% robs the economy of billions and billions of dollars. This grotesque mistake alone paves the way not for additional investment in Alberta but rather, a race to the bottom Hunger Games scenario where essential services are cut due to the invented crisis.”

In addition to outright opposing the cuts, the Greens believe the way they were delivered is highly objectionable. The United Nurses of Alberta, the union representing nurses, indicated they learned of the pending cuts at a hastily called meeting in which the Alberta Health Services negotiator informed them after the fact that the cuts would be rolled out over the next three years.

“This type of action is not how you build partnerships and imbue good faith into the system,” says Carnegie. “These cuts are a clear act of intimidation that are being wielded in advance of negotiations that are due to start in 2020. Instead of formulating good working relationships with a vital group of professionals, our government is defining the relationship as dictatorial and top-down.”

“The Green Party of Alberta stands with frontline nurses during this difficult time and pledges to support them during this dark hour for the betterment of our growing population in Alberta,” says Carnegie, who is also the GPA’s Candidate of Record in Calgary-East.

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For more information, please contact:

Will CarnegieInterim Leader of the Green Party of Alberta, Candidate of Record in Calgary-EastPhone: 403-973-6035Email: leader@greenpartyofalberta.ca